\nATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 A Wall Street credit rating firm that was among the most pessimistic about the prospects for Internet gambling in New Jersey has cut its already-conservative estimate on the state\u2019s first-year online winnings by more than half.<\/p>\n
\tTuesday\u2019s move by Fitch Ratings comes a day after New Jersey reported a third straight monthly decline in the amount of money won by the state\u2019s Internet betting operations, partnered with Atlantic City casinos.<\/p>\n
\tThe online casinos won $9.5 million in June, and have taken in $63 million for the year.<\/p>\n
\tThat prompted Fitch to cut its estimate of New Jersey\u2019s 2014 Internet winnings to $120 million to $130 million, down from the $200 million to $300 million it had forecast in December.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSeveral factors we had expected to drive sequential growth have not materialized, including a ramp-up in players\u2019 awareness of online gaming as a result of operators\u2019 marketing efforts,\u201d the company wrote in a note to investors. \u201cThe number of online gaming accounts increasing 8 percent in June to 378,564 from 351,136 in May, and tripling since December, has not translated into increased revenue. Other factors expected to drive growth include technology improvements, users\u2019 adaption to the available payment methods and the rollout of mobile products.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFitch also took note of the casino consolidation slamming Atlantic City, where The Atlantic Club has already closed this year, The Showboat and Trump Plaza have announced plans to do so soon, and Revel could join them if a buyer is not found by early August.<\/p>\n
\tThe company said several of the closings appeared to have been delayed while their parent companies waited for Internet gambling to take hold in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\tFitch also said additional risk is present for Atlantic City casinos if New Jersey lawmakers allow a casino in the Meadowlands near New York City in the next few years \u2013 something the state\u2019s horse racing industry and its northern New Jersey political backers have long wanted.<\/p>\n
\tNew Jersey began allowing Internet gambling in late November as a way to bring new customers and revenue to Atlantic City\u2019s struggling casinos.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 A Wall Street credit rating firm that was among the most pessimistic about the prospects for Internet gambling in New Jersey has cut its already-conservative estimate on the state\u2019s first-year online winnings by more than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}